Posts by PM_me_my_shoes

We bought a property three years and it keeps repeatedly being re-listed as a rental property on various websites (Right Move, Zoopla).

It was actually owned by the managing director of the estate agent and sold through his agency. We have contacted them several times and they assure us it is a mistake and promise to remove the listing. It has repeatedly reappeared under For Sale and To Let.

its also a lead generation tactic. you list a particularly great property, low price, high standard. you get people to submit their details, emails, numbers etc. but oops it was a mistake, so they spam you with other properties.

if that is a known "tactic" then OP could report them to ASA for breech of advertising standards and let them approach these agents.

I've reported a couple of housing companies that abuse listings on the aforementioned property sites (under-declaring property price, which is extremely annoying). ASA agreed with me and have spoken to said agents, and I just reported the other day that they are still doing it.

good shout, will take this into consideration. im house hunting now and seen properties that are listed for months on end, but when you contact them it's always a mistake, or their IT systems are acting up or they forgot to remove it. it goes on and on for months.

In my example above, companies deduct 'discounts' (help to buy, over 60 plans) and apply said discount to the listing price.

Ive argued that, if someone is applicable for a discount scheme, they can work out their full budget and search like everyone else based on the full listing price.

But since they dont know what the discount the agent has applied, even those who can get a discount, cant properly search for properties either!

ASA dont care as long as in the listing somewhere it says "full house price £££"

So i had to report it not based on the main listings where they put the full price hidden in a wall of text, but the search results, which obviously shows the under declared price and which "baits" you to enquire further.

It is a bit of a joke how ASA works and consider acceptable advertising.

The otherday i was searching for properties, Connels listed the real price for a property but that lame Homewise company were listing the exact same house at their average discounted price.

Will start looking for rightmove's CEO email and ask them to black list them or play fair.

Most definitely this. Google/fb/trustpilot reviews are as important to estate/letting agents as NPS (net promoter scores) so definitely shout about less than trustworthy practices. There are good agents that aren't the modern equivalent of dodgy used car salesmen and this is why reviews are now so important to agents.

Not OP but been in a similar position. I thought it looked bad when we actually tried to sell the property and it looked to many prospective buyers like it had been on the market for years. One prospective buyer asked outright why it had been such a hard sale, on a viewing that was on the 4th day of our genuine listing being life.

Our sale was not a huge issue and it was only the specific agent's website it features on, but I wonder if in this case the OP may claim that due to what must look like poor tenant retention he may claim some potential loss in future sales value.

Not OP but pretty much exactly this happened to a friend of mine except the landmarks in some of the pictures were obvious enough that people figured out the address and started showing up to her house and peering through windows and trying to get in the backyard.

That alone would sketch me out enough that I'd want the problem fixed.

You can report the listing on Rightmove. If I remember correctly,there is a link on the right hand side of the advert and it'll report it straight to them. Zoopla as well. Also message the property ombudsman as it is false advertising.

You can easily tell the prospective buyers the full story. Once they hear what the estate agent is doing, I’m sure they will be reluctant to buy from the agent. Any agent wouldn’t want to risk reputational damage, and so they’d better take it down.